<span style="color: #222222;">Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan held a high level meeting with Health Minister of Punjab  Balbir Singh Sidhu to review preparedness and containment measures taken for COVID-19 management in the State  through video conference. <br />''<br />''During the meeting, Dr  Vardhan stated that till today, a total of 74,281 cases have been reported from the country in which 24,386 persons have been cured and 2,415 deaths had occurred.<br />''<br />'' He said, the doubling time of cases in the past 14 days was 11 and  it has now improved to 12.6 in the last three days. He added that the fatality rate is 3.2 per cent  and the recovery rate is pegged at 32.8 per cent.  <br />''<br />''The Union Health Minister also informed that as of now 900 dedicated COVID hospitals with around 1.80 lakh  beds and  2,040 dedicated COVID Health Centres with over 1. 29 lakh beds and  8,708 quarantine centres and 5,577 COVID Care Centres are now available to combat COVID-19 in the country.<br />''<br />''Dr. Harsh Vardhan had a detailed interaction with Punjab Health Minister and the DMs of the districts of Ludhiana, Amritsar, Patiala and Jalandhar of the various issues regarding COVID-19 management and the issues that form a priority. He appreciated the steps taken so far regarding the stringent adherence of the lockdown measures, ontact tracing and screening of all population in the containment areas.<br />''<br />''Dr  Vardhan said that Punjab has done well in operationalising the Ayushman Bharat – Health and Wellness Centers and these could be further used for screening of people with diabetes, hypertension  and for extension of comprehensive primary healthcare services to the community at large.</span><br />